Its sunday, 10-25, and I just returned to boulder from the first proper ski-weekend con camper. Now, as I've written before, the camper is a 1973 Mitchell fishing hut, something that I looked for for a while and paid $175 for it. I will admit that it is a little leaky, a little moldy, but these are things I can fix, and plan to in the near future (even though I have been saying that for a year now). most importantly, it stays warm, very warm. Anyways, my ski partner andy and I left boulder at 7 a.m. and headed west to our go-to front range spot. After getting coffee we continued west, toward the big mtns, and what appeared to be the big storm as well. While it is always nice to get out in the woods in winter conditions, we had a tough time and after a while of dealing with zero visibility and big winds, we decided to call it. it was one of the few times we actually got shut out. There are many times that because of conditions we ski something different than the goal, or stay in the trees, ect, but this day we didn't even have the chance to put the skis on, and it was a bummer. After 4.5 hrs of walking in ski boots we returned to the car, got some pizza, and headed to vail.
Now andy and I both lived in vail for a while, and have great friends there. As we continue down the path of this ski life, we continue to meet others who have chosen similar paths in life and skiing, and eventually a lot of good skiers with really good knowledge of their mtns get together and ski. Its a great feeling, and that is usually what happens when we go to vail. I spent the night in my camper with the dogs at the booth falls trailhead, and arose nice and early to get up to brady's for homemade waffles, which were delicious. We were out the door by 8, and besides the trouble my truck was giving me, we piled into another friends car and headed up to vail pass. In the car are my good friend brady, his friend ryan, andy, jeff , and myself. It was a motley crew of early season rippers looking for a good time, and it had snowed several inches the night before as well. Now, ryan lives in telluride and was in for the weekend in his brand new-to-him toyota 4 runner, which absolutely KILLED it up the snowcovered road to our destination. We pulled up at the top, slapped on the gear, and began skiing. I was really impressed with the amount of snow, there was about 2 feet of pow above rocks and fallen trees. I was called out and made the first turns of the day, top to bottom pow turns with minimal bottom interference. Everyone skied down, we set a bootpack back up, and did it again.
What made today really special was that after the second lap we decided to run beacon drills. Andy works for BCA, so he runs clinics all the time. We stomped out a "slide path", went over everything from beacons and how they function to proper probe and shovel techniques, and then began the "beacon-off". Single skier burial, slowest recovery time of the group buys beers. I went first, and couldn't find the buried beacon for the life of me. Andy came down to have a look and determined that while my beacon transmits flawlessly, the receiving antennae were screwed and I needed a new beacon. Everyone went, just over 1 minute, 2 minutes, one minute, and then it was my turn again. I used a new tracker, and found my victim in 47 seconds. Andy went next and found his in about 37 seconds.
we were outside, bypassing turns, to work on our beacon skills. It was snowing, then sunny, always beautiful, and we were outside practicing our survival skills. it was the perfect thing to do, and there is no doubt we all needed it and benefitted from it. What it also made me realize is that so few people who have beacons actually know how to use them, and that most people who have them never practice with them anyways. its such an unfortunate circumstance, but I would argue its the truth.
We finished beacon skills and decided to take one more run. I went skiers right, way right, as it was our last turns of the day. the snow was soft, light, deep and buttery. Another day of living.